Slow Day
by SIDRAT
Summary: The Torchwood team think they are having a slow day, until reports of giant sharks and missing boats come through. But the team are yet to find out that something bigger is about to take place. Set just before Reset and Rated M for blood, guts and gore!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a slow day for the Torchwood team. Gwen Cooper sat at her desk, looking over reports of alien sightings, trying to find something that wasn't just a loony claiming that an alien had walked into his house, had a cup of tea and left.

She looked over at Owen, only to find that he was playing a game of minesweeper. Typical Owen, she thought. Jack couldn't see Owen's computer screen from his desk, although Gwen knew that he could if he looked at the CCTV. A couple of days ago, Tosh had made a chat program that allowed them to talk to everyone, or just one specific person, at a time. Jack had approved of it, because he thought that it would be useful to talk to Ianto at the front desk unsuspiciously if there was a threat. However, Gwen and Owen had been using more to ease boredom. Gwen opened up the chat and selected Owen

Gwen: Couldn't you find a better game to play?

Owen took a while to reply.

Owen: May I remind you that minesweeper is a game of deduction and logic, not some kid's game.

Gwen: Yeah, sure it is

Gwen went back to the loony's reports.

***

Captain Jack Harkness was just as bored as everyone else was. He opened up the CCTV cameras to check what everyone was up to. Tosh was making some program, he could tell by the concentrated look on her face. Gwen was going through reported alien sighting. Jack admired Gwen for how she persevered even when she knew there was nothing to look at. He then turned his eyes to Owen's desk. To Jack's no surprise, he was playing minesweeper. Owen did this regularly, when he got bored and there was nothing to do. He looked at the camera monitoring Ianto's desk. Ianto obviously was playing a game, a first person shooter from what Jack could see. Ianto brow was furrowed and he was leaning side to side as he ran through a forest in the game. Jack laughed at Ianto's obscure movements and got up from his desk.

***

Ianto Jones was so close to victory. He was just an inch away, so close...

"Come on Ianto," said a voice that Ianto realized wasn't from the game.

He abandoned his keyboard and looked up to find Jack standing in front of the desk.

"You can do better than this Ianto," said Jack "Research something, find something, give us something to do!"

"Owen's playing minesweeper," he defended.

"He won't be in a minute," Jack pointed out.

"Sorry sir. I'll get back to work."

Jack nodded and left.

***

Owen Harper was getting sick of Minesweeper. He quit his game and looked at what else he had to play. His options were chess, minesweeper, spider solitaire and checkers. He opened up the chat and clicked on Gwen.

Owen: What do you reckon is better, Chess or Spider Solitaire?

"Personally, I prefer Spider Solitaire," said Jack, standing behind Owen.

Owen jumped and swinged his chair around.

"Ah, yes, hello," Owen stuttered

"Hi, I'd appreciate it if I didn't play games when you're meant to be working."

Owen opened his mouth to speak but was saved by Ianto walking in. Everyone turned around to watch him.

"There've been several reports of missing boats out on the bay. People are saying giant sharks"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The SUV came to a halt a few meters away from the Cardiff mariner, only to find a bunch of old fisherman lingering around on the pier.

"So, remind me once more Gwen, what exactly, are we doing here again," Owen complained as they trampled out of the SUV.

"Well, Ianto said that the reports had come mainly from fisherman, so I figured we should pay them a visit."

"Ianto, what size were the missing boats?" asked Jack "I'm presuming we're not talking cruise liners?"

"No sir, just mostly small motorised fishing boats like these ones," he pointed to a bunch of old looking boats that had obviously outlasted longer than one would think possible "The others were just motor boats owned by locals."

"And they missing people weren't related to each other in any way were they?" questioned Jack.

"Not that I could find sir."

Jack turned to Tosh, "Tosh, can you find out if these so called "giant sharks" are from the rift?"

"I can use the mariner's surrounding locations and cross-reference that with the rift activity," she replied and hurried off back to the SUV.

Owen made another comment, "Well, let's go question the loony fisherman then, shall we?"

They walked on to the pier and towards the old fishermen. One of them turned around and looked at the team. He was wearing a long shabby brown coat and a black beanie, which had bits of grey hair curling out from the sides. Jack had suspicions that he was a derelict.

"Who are you then?" He said "Are you the bloody police, come to tell us that we were right!"

All the other fishermen had turned around now too, waiting for an answer.

Gwen spoke first, "No we're not the police, but we are here to help. There have been reports of missing fishermen and of giant sharks."

"Well that's what they look like in photos," said one of the fishermen.

"You have photos of these things?" asked Jack.

The first fisherman spoke again "You bet I do. One day, Bill and I got here around 10 in the morning. See, only the serious fishers get here in the early morn', like Me, Bill an' Ernie. Ernie had got here early than us, see, and he was already out fishin'.

"So Bill and I got our boat ready and as I was packing our lunch onto our boats, I looked out and saw the giant thing attacking Ernie's boat. It looked like a shark, see, and we don't get sharks 'round here, so I started takin' photos with me cell phone. Ernie and his boat got ripped to shreds, it was terrible."

"Do you have the photos with you?" asked Gwen.

"Think I got them here somewhere," he said as he fumbled around in his brown coat "Here we are."

He pulled out a bunch of pixelated photos. Jack looked at them, there were three in total and all he could make out from them was a large thing attacking what must have been a boat.

Gwen tried to reassure herself that these people weren't just another bunch of loonies, "And you're sure that what you saw was a giant shark."

"Well I couldn't see what else it might have looked like," he said

Jack continued with the questions "Did you go to the police?"

"Well, see, Bill and I went to the police, because we were the only ones who saw it. We showed them the photos but they didn't believe us, they said it was a hoax. So then we told them that Ernie died because of the giant shark, see, but they said that they thought that Ernie had died from a boating accident and that we were trying to make profit out of it," he said "Isn't that right Bill?"

He turned around to another fisherman, who nodded.

Owen was getting impatient, "And you are?"

"I'm John and that was Bill," he pointed to the fisherman who had nodded. He started to whisper "Bill can't talk, see, his tongue got cut off when he was a kid."

"No wonder the police thought you were loonies," mumbled Owen.

Gwen nudged him in the stomach even though she agreed with him.

Ianto finally spoke up, "And more people have disappeared, right?"

"One or two more people haven't come back from the seas. Me an' the boys think it's the giant shark," John added a mysterious tone to his voice, like he was in a movie.

Owen lost his patience, "Cut the dramatics sunshine, we've-".

Jack cut him off, "Owen..."

"Well somebody had to tell him," As Owen turned around he realized that everyone else was looking at a dead body that was lying in half a boat. What was left from the boat had obviously floated in from the sea and had now reached the shore. As Owen looked at the body he saw that several body parts were missing and that the man's clothes had been ripped to shreds, as well as many deep gashes in the remaining corpse. The man's face still had a look of surprise on it.

A nearby fisherman screamed, "That's Bert!"

Jack turned to John, "How deep is the water where the body is?"

"Only 'bout a metre, why?" he responded.

"Owen, with me," Jack motioned to the water.

Jack pulled of his coat, threw it to Gwen and jumped in, with Owen following suite.

Jack lifted up the legs of the corpse, while Owen grabbed him by the underarms. When they started to carry the corpse towards the pier, it became evident that the head was only attached to the body by a piece of skin and Owen swore when it fell off. Owen floated the corpse on the water (with Jack supporting it) and picked up the floating head.

"Ianto," Owen called "Quick Thinking!"

Owen threw the head towards Ianto and resumed carrying the corpse onto the pier. They moved the corpse into the back of the SUV.

"Tosh, how are you going," Jack called through the boot.

"It looks like the creatures, whatever they are, are from the rift, except I need the hub to make sure."

"We're going there now."

Jack closed the boot and was about to get in when he heard a woman's voice, "'Scuse me."

Jack turned around to see the woman was walking towards him.

"Where are you taking that body?" she asked "You're acting as if it's yours to take! As if you own it."

"I'm sorry," Jack replied "But we do own it now."

Jack jumped into the SUV and they drove off.

***

"There are deep cuts all over the corpse. The brain was pulled out of the back of the skull; the heart was ripped out of the chest and an arm and a leg are missing," Reported Owen back in the Hub "Oh and the guy got decapitated."

"By us," added Ianto.

Owen retorted, "Well considering it was hanging by a piece of skin, Ianto, I wasn't going to blame us."

"Anyway...," Jack tried to avoid the arguing "Owen, start running run scans to see what caused the wounds.

"Tosh, confirm that these things are from the rift.

"Gwen, see if you can find anything else related to the deaths.

"Ianto... man the front desk."

2 Hours Later

Tosh called out across the Hub, "Jack, I've got confirmation. Whatever they are, they're from the rift."

"Brilliant," Jack said as walked over to Gwen's desk "Gwen, found anything?"

Gwen looked up from her computer screen, "No such luck, there's absolutely nothing."

"Owen, what do the scans say?"

Owen came up the stairs, "Well, we're looking at teeth that caused the wounds.

"At first I was looking at the scans and I thought that they were just plain shark teeth. But I looked at dimensions and realized that the teeth were 5x bigger than normal and believe it or not, they're made out of a type metal."

"5x bigger! Are you sure?" Gwen asked.

Owen was confident, "100%. I even scanned the wounds again to double check."

Gwen could tell that Jack was blown away, "Wow, ok. That's big."

"Can Captain Jack Harkness only handle the little aliens like weevils?" teased Gwen.

"No, no I can handle it. Where's my coat?" asked Jack abruptly.

"Why? Where are we going?" Tosh enquired.

Jack grinned, "we're going to find the sharks!'


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rhys Williams was enjoying a beer in the local cafe with his mate Bill. They were sitting outside, because inside it was loud and noisy.

"And then she said 'Sorry mate but I don't think I'll ever be coming back,'" Rhys said as he laughed his head off "You should have seen the look on her face, it was hilarious!"

Bill laughed with him. Rhys loved days like this, when he could sit back with a mate and enjoy a beer. Although at times he missed Gwen, he did enjoy it when he had the weekend to himself to do whatever he pleased.

Rhys realized that his beer bottle was empty "Shall I get us another when then?"

"No I'm fine thanks," Bill replied.

Suddenly, something was wrong. He saw the look on Bill's face turn from happiness to horror. He tried to scream but he couldn't, he tried to breathe but he couldn't, he couldn't even move one limb. Everything around them seemed to disappear with a huge gust of wind. Rhys' whole body slammed into something and the last thing he saw was a smashed wall of the living room...

***

Jack was steering a motor boat out to the ocean with the team on board.

Owen wasn't happy, "So, if I'm correct, you Jack Harkness, are steering us out to sea in a motor boat. Once out at sea, you intend to sit down and wait for a bunch of sharks with metal teeth to come and find us, correct?"

Jack kept his gaze on the sea in front of him, "Come on Owen! You make it sound like you have the worst job in the world?"

"It's not the worst job, but certainly the most dangerous," he muttered as he walked to the back of the ship.

Gwen walked past Owen and over to Jack.

"I didn't know you could drive a ship?" Gwen commented.

Jack laughed, "There's a lot of things you don't know about me Gwen".

Gwen changed the subject, "So how are you so sure that we'll find the sharks if we just sail out to sea?"

Jack's face turned grim, "I'm not."

Gwen saw Jack's face turned from grim to the kind of face he had when something was wrong. She tried to scream but she couldn't, she tried to breathe but she couldn't, she couldn't even move one limb. Everything seemed to disappear and her body thumped down onto a long grass field.

***

Rhys felt really bad when he came back into consciousness. His head felt groggy and a sharp pain was coming from his left arm. He tried to move it but that only made it worse. He also found several cuts and bruises. Slowly he stood up and looked at his surroundings. He was in a small cottage and outside he could see what looked like a farm. He noticed that the wall directly across from him was small to pieces and it took him a while to realize that he was the one who had smashed it in the first place. All the furniture from the room had also been thrown against the wall. He saw ruined tables, chairs, cutlery and just about everything that wasn't built in with the house. He walked through the smashed wall only to find various things lying on the ground that had been outside the cafe; chairs and tables, smashed beer and wine glasses and lots of other things. He stomach turned as he saw what was lying against what remained of the end of the wall; Bill was lying in a pool of blood, his eyes wide open and his face frozen in an expression of shock. Rhys ambled over to him and kneeled down beside him, soaking his pants in blood. He checked Bill's pulse; even though he knew what he would find. Bill was dead.

***

Owen felt his face smack down hard onto the ground. He had only fallen from about a metre but it had still hurt. He looked up to find himself in a long grass field with no signs of civilisation. Ianto was moaning while holding his hand sitting on the ground, Gwen looked unconscious, Tosh and Jack looked fine. He also saw the boat (which had nearly smashed apart) only a few metres away.

"At least she's not dead," Owen said to himself as he checked Gwen's consciousness.

He rushed over to Ianto, "Can you move you arm?"

Ianto continued to moan as he shook his head.

"Jack, I think Ianto's broken his arm," Owen called back at Jack.

Jack got up and jogged over, "What can we do about it?"

"Not much unless there's a hospital around, which isn't looking likely, so.... I'll put it in a sling," Owen started to get out the stuff he needed from his medical case (which had luckily landed near the boat).

Tosh had walked over, "I think the more important question is where we are?"

The team were hit hard by the question and they all seemed frozen for a moment, stung by the harsh reality that they were in someplace else, with absolutely no control. They were suddenly broken from their trance, by a stirring noise coming from Gwen and they all rushed over to her.

Owen was the first to talk, "How are you feeling?"

"Groggy," came her one word reply

"Yeah, you'll probably feel like that for a while."

Jack started to take control, "Owen help Ianto and Gwen, Tosh, have you still got your laptop?"

"Yes, it was in my briefcase hanging around my neck when...." She struggled to find a word for what had happened "when "it" happened. But I'll be lucky if it's still working!"

"Well, find out where we are and what happened."

Gwen had sat up, "You don't think it may be related to the sharks do you?"

"I wouldn't think so, but it's a good point. Tosh, if you can also find out if it's related to the sharks that would be great." Jack spoke at everyone "It takes more than this to kill the Torchwood team."

***

Rhys couldn't believe anything and he was in quite a state of shock. He was sitting next to his best mate's corpse outside what looked like a cottage in the English countryside, when only 30 minutes previously he had been sitting in a cafe drinking a beer with that same person. It took quite a while for him to get himself together. He sat and thought about what had happened and what he should do next. He suspected that his left arm was broken by the impact when he hit the wall. When "it" happened. Presumably, "it" had happened to the whole world. So a). Bill probably wasn't the only one dead b). The whole world was probably in a state of panic and c). That meant it had happened to Gwen. He reached into his pocket for his mobile but found it was crushed to pieces. He didn't care about the rest of the world, just for Gwen. It took him a couple of minutes to realize that he would be no use sitting on the ground without any form of communication, so he stood up and started to walk holding his left arm in his right.

***

Ianto's arm felt better now that he Owen had treated to it, Gwen's head no longer felt groggy and, luckily, Tosh's laptop was still working. Tosh was trying to determine where they were via GPS because there weren't any Wi-Fi signals. She was waiting for the computer to return some results, which was taking longer than usual. She had come to the conclusion that it was probably because millions of people were also trying to determine they location.

Finding out what had actually happened was more difficult, since without Wi-Fi she couldn't search for anything on the net. So she and Ianto had been gone for a walk earlier to try and find someone else who story of what happened might have provided some insight. But what they had found was depressing. They had found lots of little cottages with lots of dead corpses punched into walls or corners and they didn't want to wonder too far so they ambled back to where the rest of the team were. Tosh found that her computer was done and was so surprised with the result that it took her a while to take in.

"Jack," she called "I think you should see this."

Jack walked over to her, "What is it?"

"We're in the exact same location as we were when "it" happened. We didn't move at all."

Author's Notes: Hi, Thanks for reading the story. I know the end of this chapter sounds similar to "the stolen earth" (a Doctor Who story) but it's really not. I'd also appreciate it if you reviewed my story.

Thanks,

SIDRAT


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rhys had been walking for a couple of hours now, but it seemed that he was walking to his death. His feet were aching, his broken arm was killing him, the sun was making him extremely dehydrated, the crusted blood on his trousers was starting to stink and worst of all he was hungry. Very hungry. The last thing he had had to eat was a bowl of fries, and the 3 bottles of beer he had drunk earlier had now left a bad taste in his mouth.

One hour earlier he'd considered this whole thing being a dream, but had scrapped the thought. First of all, it was too realistic and detailed for a dream and second of all, it was a very, very long dream.

Within the first half an hour of walking he'd found another cottage, similar to the one he had woken up in. It was in the same state and there was even a smashed wall. He had come to the conclusion that they were famer's houses. The question was where were the farmers?

It was only one more hour until he saw what he wanted to, the edge of a town. Not a very big town, but nonetheless, a town. He stumbled across the long grass field and let out a long laugh. He didn't like what he heard. His voice was rough and sounded like nails down a chalkboard.

He reached the town within 20 minutes, only to find that it was hell. Dead bodies lay across the ground and taxis and cars were bashed into shops. Rhys forced himself further, even though every part of his body told him to stop.

A man lay on the side of the road beside a woman's body as he murmured, "Josie, Josie."

An image of him lying besides Gwen's body came into his head, but he forced it out of his mind and continued to walk, to what seemed like the end of the world.

5 Hours Later

The sun was setting over the long grass field and the Torchwood team felt more hopeless than ever. Owen was helping people who had come stumbling through the field, but without proper equipment to operate with death seemed to seep closer. He could tend to little cuts and bruises, but not the big gashes and broken bones that the two patients had. Jack suggested that the move into one of the cottages that Tosh and Ianto had found earlier. Nobody argued and they started to carry the patients over the field.

By the time they reached a cottage it was dark. Owen looked at the mess that had been created and started to deduct what had happened. Looking at the state of the place, when "it" happened it had caused everything that wasn't attached to the house to be thrown to the left side of each room. Most of the kitchen cupboards had been thrown open and Owen found that the ones that hadn't opened had everything inside thrown to left side as well. He walked up the staircase and found that everything in the rooms upstairs was in the same state. Looking at the owner's room gave Owen a sense of just how big this was. The whole world could be like this. Millions of people could already be dead and the weight was lying on Torchwood's shoulders to do something before it presumably got worse.

Owen found a framed picture lying against a smashed wooden bed frame. In the picture was an old man with his arm around a woman who Owen presumed was his wife. The old man was wearing a Scottish beret and traditional farmer's cloths. The woman held a gardening spade in her hand and was wearing a fairly ugly green cardigan. They hadn't found any bodies when entering the cottage but he presumed that the couple in the picture owned it. Owen picked up a bedside table, stood it up properly and placed the picture on top. He walked out of the room, determined to help as many people as e could out of this misery.

***

Rhys had walked right to the edge of the town, but was forced to retire to a small house due to the night. He needed sleep, but he also needed water and food. He almost tripped himself over when he half ran, half walked to the tap in the kitchen of the house. Like most other buildings Rhys had saw, everything had been thrown to the left wall and after throwing himself under the tap for water, he ran at the assortment of biscuits and fruit that he saw against the wall.

After stuffing his belly with food, he lay down on the wooden floor, not caring for how uncomfortable it was, and immediately fell asleep.

***

Gwen, Owen, Tosh and Ianto were all gathered around a small fire that they had lit to keep warm. Jack was inside trying to call Martha Jones, who they had been told was an old friend of his whom now worked for UNIT.

He was starting to get angry, "I DON'T CARE HOW BUSY YOU ARE, TELL THEM THAT IT'S TORCHWOOD!"

The mood was fairly dismal when Jack came storming out of the cottage.

"They hung up on me!" he said as he threw the wireless landline phone onto the grass.

He sat down with the others and looked around, "Where's the man?"

The first of the two patients had died an hour earlier and the second was not in any state to talk.

Owen replied, "He went upstairs and to get some rest. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't wake up."

"Well, I think it's time we discussed what happened. So, Tosh, please me with some dazzling theory."

"Well, I was thinking about when "it" actually happened and a thought came to me. Although it would seem like some form of alien teleportation, it can't have been because everything was smashed into walls as well as some people. That implies that things have been moved, or the thing that everything is sitting on has been moved."

Ianto seemed amazed, "Like the Earth has been spun or something?"

"Well, yes, that's one theory," she said "but it would've had to been spun really fast, so fast that we wouldn't have realized it."

"And how could this be related to the sharks?" asked Gwen.

"Unless it isn't." Owen added.

Jack changed the subject, "I think the real questions are will it happen again, when, and what are the people behind it trying to achieve."

Tosh was the first to answer, "I think it'll happen again, at the same time as yesterday and as for the last question. I think they're trying to kill us."

***

Rhys woke up with the pain in his arm feeling worse than ever and had a bad back from lying on the hard ground. He realized that the only way for him to get anywhere near Cardiff (and Gwen) was for him to find a working car. He grabbed a plastic bag (which he filled up with lots of food) and a bottle of water from the pantry and set off.

Looking up at the sky, Rhys observed that it was already noon and he had slept in for way longer than usual. It took him a full hour to find a working car and even then he had to shove a dead corpse out of the driver's seat. He chucked the water and food into the back seat while turning the keys in the ignition with his other hand. He pulled out a street directory from the glove box and found the quickest route back to Cardiff. As he drove he tried to ignore the blood splattered seats and steering wheel, choosing to think of Gwen instead.

***

They were all set up. Tosh had her webcam ready facing north, with both the ground and the sky in the camera's view. Their plan was to catch "it" on camera (if it happened again) and play the video back slowly afterwards.

"There's approximately 10 minutes until "it" happened 24 hours ago." Tosh announced.

They were sitting on the ground behind the camera, holding hands as a safety precaution so they wouldn't be separated. The next 8 minutes seemed painstakingly long and they were all hopeful that Tosh was right. When it came to the "1 minute to go" mark Tosh stood up to start the camera rolling, but quickly sat back down again.

She started to count down, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

Nothing happened and Owen stood up, "Well that's that then, isn't it?"

But then Gwen felt it, that same feeling as before. She couldn't breathe or talk or move and she seemed to have elevated off the ground a little bit. The next thing she knew Tosh's computer banged into her head and she landed on grass again. She looked around to see that the others were with her too, except they were looking at something behind her.

Jack was dumbstruck, "You've got to be kidding me!"

Gwen turned around to see that a few hundred metres away stood the Eiffel Tower.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"I can deal with the English countryside, but this?" Owen waved a hand at the Eiffel Tower, "I mean come on! What are the idiots who are doing this playing at?"

"Oh, come on Owen. It's Paris, 'La Ville-Lumière', or in English, 'the city of light'"

"Yeah, but that's just a fancy nickname, isn't it."

Tosh piped up, "Um, I think it's a good idea if we go find a place where I can get Wi-Fi. Then we might be able to figure out what's going on."

They trundled through the park, heading towards a row of cafes. Ianto noticed that the sun was setting.

"Seems a bit early for that doesn't it?" he pointed at the sun.

Tosh agreed, "Come to think of it, yes. There's an hour difference between London and Paris, but even with the time difference it's too early for a sunset."

They crossed a road and Owen was amazed at the amount of dead bodies.

Jack seemed to know what Owen was thinking and said, "Leave them; there's nothing we can do or them now. They're dead and it's our responsibility to save the people who are still alive."

Jack led them into a small Parisian cafe. It had all its tables and chairs smashed to one side of the room. A man was lying down on the ground, looking drunk and half-asleep. He had black spiky hair and was wearing a waiter's uniform. He had several bad cuts and bruises presumably from when "it" happened, but he seemed to be in better condition than others.

Jack walked up and poked him, "Excuse Me."

The man jolted awake and let out a small scream. He stood up off the ground and looked at the team with utter confusion. Jack noticed a Wi-Fi router on the ground.

"We were wondering if we could use your WI-Fi."

The man started rambling in French.

Gwen walked over to Jack, "I don't think he speaks English."

"Excusez Moi Monsieur, est-ce que nous peu utiliser ton connexion Wi-Fi?" Everybody turned their head to Ianto, "I learnt French when I was five."

The French man screamed something at the team and Ianto translated, "He says 'It may be the end of the world, but I'm not giving away my Wi-Fi!'"

"Maybe this will make him change his mind." Jack pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the man's head.

Owen let out a small laugh, "One minute you're talking about how Paris is the city of lights, next minute you're pointing guns at the locals, nice."

"I don't like the French."

Ianto translated when the man spoke, "He says he'll try to set it up."

"Tell him to make it quick." Jack said quickly as he lowered the gun.

***

"It" had happened again and Rhys was dying. The car was crumpled into a wall and Rhys could feel several places were bits of metal stuck into him. The car had broken many of his bones and he was falling in and out of consciousness. Rhys moved his head, but felt a sharp pain as a piece of the car's door stuck into his temple. Then, as blood rushed out of the newly formed wound, he died.

***

The team sat at the cafe's tables and chairs while Tosh tried to find something for them to work with on the computer. After the man had set up the Wi-Fi he had fled into the streets. They sat there, waiting for hours, but Tosh couldn't find anything. As the hours passed by, moral seemed to get lower and lower. Come night-time Tosh still hadn't found anything.

Jack stood up and broke the silence, "Anyone fancy coming for a walk?"

Gwen stood up but didn't speak as she followed Jack out the door. They walked in silence under the dim street lights for several minutes. It was already dark, even though it was only 5pm. "It" seemed to have had a weird effect on the sunsets and sunrises.

"What do we do now Jack?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

"Tosh can't find anything for us to work with, so what happens next?" she tried to hide the tiny bit of anger in her voice. "We're bloody hopeless now aren't we? We can handle Cardiff, can't we? We can handle aliens and weevils, can't we? So why can't we handle this? What's happened to you Jack? Where's that enthusiasm that you usually have? What do we do next?"

Jack stopped walking and turned to her, "Yes, we can handle Cardiff. Yes, we can handle the aliens. Why can't we handle this? Because the whole world is in panic. Because millions of people are dead. Because something happens that causes people to turn up in different places and smash into things. I don't know how we're going to fix this, but Tosh looking for stuff on the computer seems like a good place to start, because I have no other ideas. Do you Gwen?"

Gwen was shocked, "Sorry, I'm really sorry. I don't know what brought that on, I'm just....."

"Tired, you're tired. Come let's walk back to the cafe and you can get some sleep."

He put an arm around her and started to walk back to the cafe, as she started to cry into his shoulder.

***

Ianto was slumped asleep in a chair, Tosh was still at her computer and Owen sat in the corner of the room dazing into space. By the look on his face Tosh could tell something was up. She got up and went over to him.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing, it's... Nothing, I'm just feeling tired."

"You sure? You don't sound confident in yourself."

"Yeah...."

"It's everything that's happening, isn't it? That's what's upset you."

"It's the bodies," He said, his voice firm and no longer dreamy like before, "there's nothing I can do to help them. Nothing. They're all dead. I didn't even get a chance to help them before they died."

"It's not your fault!"

"Isn't it?" he turned to face her, "Isn't this what Torchwood does? We help people and protect them from alien species. And who am I? I'm the medic, the guy who's responsible for saving the people from death. And guess what? I failed! Look at the people out there Tosh! Millions of them, all dead because for once, I didn't have the time to save them!"

"That's not true. You couldn't save them; we didn't know this would happen. It was unexpected."

Owen let out a small laugh, "That's our weakness then, isn't it? The unexpected."

***

Jack and Gwen walked slowly back to the cafe, trying to ignore the mass of dead bodies scattered throughout the streets.

Jack walked over to a car that had been smashed into a wall, "Yikes, that's nasty."

The car had been squashed into a V shape with various bits of metal and stuff hanging off it. Gwen joined Jack as he tried to move some of the metal out of the way to see inside.

"If there's a body in there, it'd be squashed into a million pieces." Gwen said.

Jack ripped off a car door and saw a familiar corpse. Rhys Williams lay dead in the driver seat, his arms and legs dangling off the body.

"Oh no." Jack sounded almost scared for Gwen.

Gwen walked around to Jack and he tried to drag her away.

"Stop it, Jack, stop it. Jack!"

She broke free of his grasp and walked over to the car. She stopped instantly as she saw Rhys' body in the car. It was as if her whole body had stopped functioning. Suddenly, she didn't want ot breathe, she didn't want to move. It couldn't be possible.

She started to shake her head, "No, no. It can't be. Not him, it's just... just someone else that looks like him! Isn't it Jack?"

She looked at him hopefully, "Gwen, come here."

He gave her a hug.

Suddenly, she found herself screaming, "No! It's not him. LET GO OF ME CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS."

She pulled herself free of his grip once more and ran as fast she could away from him.

"Gwen!" he reached for his intercom, "Owen, Gwen and I have just discovered Rhys' dead corpse in a car."

Owen replied, "You mean her boyfriend?"

"Yeah him, look, can you come get the body? Gwen's run off and I've gotta go get her."

"Sure, where is it?"

"Halfway down avenue de suffren."

"Ok, I'm on it."

Jack bolted as fast as he could down the street, looking for any sign of Gwen. He looked down all the side streets and in all the shop windows, but to no avail. He kept looking for 15 minutes and stopped to catch his breath afterwards.

Tosh's voice came through his intercom, "Jack, Gwen's here, with us."

Jack was surprised, "Is she ok?"

"She's fine."

***

Jack was sitting back in the cafe with the others. Gwen had come back to Tosh and Ianto because she didn't like the idea of facing the cold night by herself. She was in a state of shock and crying nonstop, but they didn't think that she was going to randomly go running away again. She knew that staying with the team was the best thing for her. Rhys' body was covered up by a tablecloth in the corner of the room and everyone had advised Gwen not to go looking at it.

The team really were hopeless. Tosh was still persevering on the computer, but mainly it was all just reports on how the world was going to end. TV was much of the same, with people telling the French public to stay inside and keep calm.

Tosh thought that "it" would happen again, so they decided to get some sleep so they'd be awake and alert in the morning.

***

Owen woke up at 11:00 in the kitchens of the cafe. Across from him was Tosh, lying on some tablecloths to ease the hard floor. His eyes felt sleepy and the temptation to go back to sleep was growing as he stood up. He walked over to the pantry to find something to eat and ended up eating a loaf of bread to fulfil his hunger. He realized that it was probably a good idea to take grasp of the opportunity and prepare some food to take with them when "it" happened. Grabbing a plastic bag from a cupboard, he filled it with lots of food. He decided to take a look outside and headed through door. He looked at the position of the sun. It was just past where it would be if it was 2 in the afternoon. He looked at his surroundings. No one was outside; the streets were completely empty as if every member of the French public was obeying what the people on the TV were saying. He walked back inside and looked around. Something wasn't right, Ianto and Jack were a few meters away from him, Tosh was in the kitchen, Rhys' body was covered up in the corner and.... Then it hit him. Gwen was gone. He rushed over to Jack and woke him up.

"What is it?" said Jack with a rusty voice.

"Gwen's gone Jack. She's not here!"

That seemed to wake Jack up, "What?"

He looked around and realized it was true. Owen went to wake up Tosh.

"Ianto, wake up, Gwen's gone." Jack shook Ianto's body.

Tosh came running in with Owen.

"Tosh how long 'till 'it' happens again?"

She seemed to still be waking up, "um... around 50 mins."

"Ok, we've got to find her before then. Owen, come with me. Ianto, prepare for when "it" happens. Grab anything that'll be useful and that we can take with us. Tosh try and determine Gwen's location right now."

As Jack and Owen were about to run out the door Tosh asked, "What happens if you don't get back in time."

Jack didn't have a reply and instead ran out the door.

"Let's look in the park." Jack suggested.

They ran across the road and split up in different directions. Owen ran through the forest of trees and realized just how low a chance they had of finding her and getting back to Tosh and Ianto in time. He and Jack searched the entire park for thirty-five minutes and were just about to cross the road when Tosh's voice crackled into their intercoms.

"Owen, Jack, I've got a trace on her and it's coming from the park your in now."

"Can't be Tosh, we just searched the entire park." Owen replied.

"The signal's coming from the exact location of the Eiffel Tower though!"

Owen cursed and they turned around heading back towards the big tower.

Jack pointed his hand to about halfway up in the stairs, "There she is!"

They ran over to the entrance of the stairs and started to run up. The climb was exasperating because not only did they have to run to catch up with Gwen, but they also had to climb and jump over the numerous dead corpses lying down on the stairs.

"What the hell is she planning to do up there?" Owen asked.

"I think she's planning to jump!"

"10 minutes until "it" happens." Tosh's voice said through the intercom.

"Jesus! Cutting it a bit fine aren't we Jack!" said Owen.

Jack looked closely at Gwen, "She's holding a freaking chainsaw."

"Where the hell did she get a chainsaw from?"

"I don't know!" screamed Jack.

They continued up and watched Gwen reach two thirds of the way up the tower. The stairs stopped where she was, so she jumped into an elevator. It was a good 20 seconds later until they reached the elevators. They ran around the floor to the other elevator and waited impatiently for it to come. The doors opened and a mass of corpses fell onto the boys. They shoved them out of the way and jumped in. The elevator ride seemed to take forever and just before they jumped out Tosh announced that they had 2 minutes left.

Owen was worried, "We're not going to make it back."

They found Gwen using the chainsaw to hack into the wires around the top of the tower.

Jack approached her slowly, "Gwen, you don't have to do this. Put the chainsaw down and came back with us."

"Don't tell me what to do Captain Harkness" she said as she turned the chainsaw in his direction.

She held the chainsaw in her right hand, still hacking the wire, and took out her pistol with her left. She pointed it at Jack and Owen.

"Ok, she's officially gone absolutely mad." stated Owen.

Gwen started to talk, "You know what, I never used believe in heaven and hell, but last night I was thinking about Rhys and I thought, "you know what, I think he's in heaven." And geuss what? I've decided that I'm gonna join him!"

"30 seconds" announced Tosh over the intercom.

Gwen had finally cut a very large hole in the wires, which was big enough to walk through. Gwen jumped straight off and within a split second Jack had jumped with her. Everything seemed to go in slow motion and Owen walked over to the newly created doorway and saw that Jack was holding onto Gwen's ankle, while falling through mid air. Owen didn't want to get crushed into the metal wires when "it" happened, so, without a second thought, he jumped too. A second after he'd jumped he felt the same sensation he had felt 24 hours ago. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't scream, but instead of landing somewhere, some big metal object hit into him. He saw that he had hit what appeared to be a big metal stingray and he grabbed onto its back. The stingray was flying through the air, with Owen on its back and before Owen could think of anything else, he passed out.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Gwen opened her eyes and realized that she wasn't in heaven. She was in a small four-sided metal prison cell. On the right side of the cell was a small metal stool and on the left was a metal tray with some stale looking bread. The front of the cell was not a wall, but a classic prison-cell bar door. The cell seemed to be one of many in a large corridor running for several metres. Gwen stood up and crumpled to the ground straight away due to a sharp pain in her stomach. She lifted her t-shirt and saw a big black bruise instead of her skin.

"Nasty." said a voice from across the corridor.

Gwen looked up and saw that in the cell diagonally across Jack was sitting on his stool.

"If you're going to say sorry for trying to committing suicide, don't. I forgive you."

"Oh my god... Rhys...."

Jack could tell she was trying hard not to cry.

"Please Gwen, tell me you're not going to try what you did back in Paris again. Because life can go on without him, you know. I know you love him, but we can help you."

A voice came from the cell next to Jack, "Torchwood. Counselling and helping distressed human beings. Because the 21st century is when everyone needs help."

Jack mustered a laugh, "Back with us then are you?"

"Yeah, but I'm more concerned with where we are. Got any ideas?"

"Looks like an alien spaceship or something." said Jack.

"And the aliens seem to be going for a metallic look."

"And they've taken our guns." said Jack as he showed them his empty Hollister.

Suddenly, the door at the end of the corridor slid open and a black-skinned man came through it. He was bald and wearing a light grey suit.

The man spoke with a low raspy voice, "Get up, off the floor. Come with me."

He unlocked the 3 cells with a swipe card and started to walk back towards the door, with the 3 others trailing behind him. Gwen could walk, but only when Owen supported her. Through the door was another long corridor. The corridor had only one wall which was a curved piece of metal in the shape of half an oval, attached to a metal floor. The man led them down the corridor and towards another sliding door. The man got out the same swipe card he had used to unlock their cells and swiped it through the machine, making the door slide open, which revealed another long corridor of prison cells. Jack looked at the people in the cells as they walked past. All of the people had cables attached to them, and didn't look in a fit state, slumped down in the corners of the cells.

"That's Brian Green, our Prime Minister."

They walked past the next cell, "That's Obama."

The next, "Francois Fillon, Prime Minister of France."

And the next, "Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia."

And the one after that, "Mark Downager, head of UNIT."

Jack stopped walking, "You've got all of the important people in the world. The people who can make a difference."

"Very good, Mr Harkness."

Owen spoke up, "How many corridors of cells have you got?"

"Just over 100."

"How many of them are full?" Gwen said quietly.

"Just over 90. Continue with me, please."

The man got out his swipe card and led them through the next door. This door however did not lead to another corridor, but into a giant dome. Wrapping around the edge of the dome were giant glass cages. Owen saw that each one of them had the same giant stingrays that he had banged into mid-air.

"You've got stingrays." Jack said.

"The very same ones that brought you here, Mr Harkness."

Jack looked at the man with one eyebrow raised, but Owen understood what the man meant entirely. The man walked through the middle of the large dome and into a door opposite the one they had come in. He continued down another corridor and through the next door, which led them into another dome. The structure of the dome was the same, however, it did not contain any cages. Instead of cages were lots of futuristic desks with matching futuristic chairs. On the desks were what looked like controls to a ship, with a monitor embedded in the middle. Sitting at each of the desks was one man and one woman. They were all looking down at their monitors, while also constantly fiddling with the controls on their desks. In the middle of the dome was a large elevated platform. It had stairs leading up to it and was in the shape of the circle with railings around the perimeter, with an elaborate futuristic desk and desk chair placed in the middle. A middle aged man sat in the chair. Gwen noticed that he had perfect posture. She looked at everyone else in the room and realized that they all had perfect posture. None of them looked ugly; they were all entirely perfect. It looked unhuman and alien.

"Is it just me or do all these people look too perfect?" Gwen whispered into Jack's ear.

"I don't think these people are people." he whispered back and walked forward.

The middle aged man rose from his chair and walked down the stairs from the platform, "Captain Jack Harkness, we meet at last. It is a pleasure, I must say, to meet you and your little group. Torchwood, I believe you call it, yes. Well, I am Magnus Rector, leader of the 5th Empire of the Swarm."

The man had short brown hair. He seemed relaxed and calm with a smile on his face.

Owen laughed, "The Swarm? That you call your little pet stingray things is it?"

The smile vanished from Rector's face and he turned to Owen, "You must be Dr. Owen Harper. Well, they're not our pets, they are us."

The man looked at the ground emotionless and suddenly a metal stingray seemed to rip out of his body with a blinding white light. The stingray let out an almighty roar which made the team put their hands over their ears. Gwen looked at the people at the desk; they hadn't even flinched nor blinked. The fact that a giant stingray had just let out a roar seemed oblivious to them. Then, the stingray folded its fins in and the same white light flashed. The next second Magnus Rector stood in front of them.

"I have no doubt that got the message through. Correct, Mr Harper?"

Owen was stunned, but nodded.

Jack steeped forward, "Well, you've asked your questions. Now it's time for mine. Where are we?"

Rector didn't oblige to the question, "You are on the Effervo, the Swarm's homeship. It is currently orbiting Sol 3, otherwise known as Earth."

Rector smiled calmly, waiting for Jack's next question.

"And are you're causing all that havoc down on Earth, right? The people crushed into walls and things."

"Yes."

"How are you doing it and why?"

"It's all to do with us "stingrays", Mr Harkness. You see, every twenty-four hours, we "stingrays" fly down into the Earth's atmosphere. We then fly extremely fast around the Earth. Do you understand?"

"Nup, not at all."

"No, I suppose you wouldn't. Well, you see, our species are so unbelievably fast when we fly. We are faster than light, faster than sound, faster than anything in all of the universe. It takes us less than one millionth of a second to fly around the entire Earth. Now do you understand?"

"Oh..." Jack eyes widened.

Gwen looked at him, "What is it? Jack, tell me."

Jack started to explain, "These stingrays fly so fast around the Earth that their speed causes the Earth to spin around fast. Anything that's not attached to the Earth isn't moved with the Earth, so when the Earth spins they might get banged into a wall or something that is moving with the Earth."

Gwen and Owen looked confused so Jack took another approach, "Say that I'm standing in a room. I'm not attached to the Earth, so when the Earth spins fastly the wall of the room will bang into me with enormous speed and force, therefore causing me to die. It's also why Tosh's scanner said we were in the same place, because we hadn't actually moved. "

Rector smiled at Jack. Jack just looked at him, expressionless.

Owen ran his hands through his hair, "Jesus, we're lucky we didn't die."

"If I may continue?" Rector looked at them.

"Go ahead."

"As I'm sure you saw on the way here, we imprisoned any important people, as to keep confusion and panic on the planet at a maximum. On to your next question, Mr Harkness: why? The answer is simple; it is in our species' nature. We are hungry and this is our way to hunt, you might say. We take down any defences or important people, then we spin the designated planet 3 times, which usually assures that the majority of the population dead, and on the fourth day we descend on the planet and eat the dead corpses. When we "stingrays" spun around the planet for the 3rd time, 3 of them bumped into 3 people in mid-air. These people were, of course, you. The stingrays brought them back here and we found out that we had just captured the majority of Torchwood."

"How long until you "descend" on Earth?"

He smiled a devilish grin, "1 hour, and believe me, I'm very hungry."

Silence lay in the dome, waiting silently for someone to break it.

"You killed my boyfriend," Gwen's words bounced off the dome's walls "and you expect me to stand here and let you descend to Earth to eat his corpse?"

Rector continued to smile, "I don't think you're in much of a position to do much at the moment. Do you Miss Cooper?"

She didn't reply.

Owen walked towards Rector, "If you don't mind, I'll ask a question next. Before you started spinning the planet, we were investigating giant sharks eating people. They weren't giant sharks were they?"

"No, Mr Harper. Unfortunately, some members of the Swarm escaped into the atmosphere when we had an airlock malfunction a few days ago. They were dealt with promptly."

Jack started to amble around the edge of the dome, peering down at the controls on the desk, "This technology looks pretty advanced."

"We scavenge technology and other things from the plants we visit."

"Well, that makes sense as to why I don't recognise the technology, although...." he stopped in front of a desk "I do recognise what that button does."

"And which button would that be, Mr Harkness" Rector said, still smiling.

"The one that does this." Jack pressed the button and disappeared in a flash of blue light.

***

Jack landed in another one of the corridors of the ships. He had one hour to stop the swarm. Wasting one second now could make all the difference in 50 minutes time. He started to walk down the corridor towards a door, unaware of where he was going. When he got to the door he realized that he'd need a swipe card. He heard footsteps and turned around, fearing the worst. He let out a sigh to see another "perfect" woman with a bucket and a mop. It was a cleaner. She would have an all-access swipe card.

Jack decided to act, "Oh, thank god you came along. I've haven't got my swipe card on me (Rector borrowed it off me) and I really need to get through the door. Can I grab your keys for a sec?"

The girl had started to mop the ground, but stopped and looked up, "Why would Rector need your swipe card. He's got an access all areas one."

"Oh, he wouldn't tell me. You know him, always smiling."

"Well, I suppose so."

She grudgingly handed the keys to the man and started to mop the floor again.

He walked over to the door, "Thanks a heap."

She looked up a couple of seconds after she heard the door slide open. The door was shut, the man was gone and so were her keys.

***

Jack ran down next corridor, clutching the cleaner's keys tight in his hands. Without her keys the cleaner was stuck in the corridor until someone else came by, which could be in the next five minutes or the next five hours. Jack walked over to a door on the side of the corridor and swiped the card. He walked through and was relieved that no one was inside. The room was small and had little control desks with similar controls on them to the ones in the dome. He walked over to a touch screen monitor, laughing at how Rector had fallen for his lie about not recognising the technology. He navigated around the on-screen menu, trying to find a map. It only took a couple of seconds to find one and he quickly searched it for some kind of storage place. He soon found out that the ship was a lot larger than he first expected. It had 6 main domes like the one Rector was in and 200 rehabilitation domes for the stingrays. He found a small room labelled "Storage Facility", which he set the teleport coordinates to. He pressed the teleport button wondering how on Earth they were going to stop this in 25 minutes.

***

Rector stood for a few seconds, looking at the spot where Jack had vanished.

"Dammit! How the hell did know what that did? He could sabotage this entire plan! I'm too hungry to wait for another 5 days! You," he pointed at the man who had brought the team from the prison cells, "find Harkness! Now! Go!"

The man hurried off out the door and Rector started pacing back and forth.

"Venustas," he walked over to the woman at the nearest desk, "How long until we descend?"

The woman spoke with a perfect voice, "50 minutes, Rector."

In Rector's anger, he had forgotten about Gwen and Owen. They stood at the end of the dome a few metres away from the door. The door opened as another "perfect" man walked through and Gwen bolted for it. Rector's head turned freakishly quickly towards the door and he pointed his palm at her. Gwen was thrown into the air and went flying backwards towards Rector. She landed with a thump on the ground just next to where Rector was standing.

He bent down to talk to her, "Nice try, Miss Cooper. But you won't get away as fast as your friend, Mr Harkness. Tie them both up, but keep them in this room. I don't want them getting out of my sight."

Two people at the desks stood up and grabbed them, tying Gwen and Owen's hands behind their backs and their feet together. Owen tried to put a fight, but it didn't work.

Rector walked up the stairs to his desk. He sat in his desk chair and fiddled with the controls on the desk.

He looked at Gwen and Owen (who were now tied to a pole with gags in their mouths), "I'm redirecting all teleports to here. So if Mr Harkness tries to teleport somewhere else, he'll just find himself with me. Ok, well, I think that's about all that can be done," he sat back in his chair, smiling "oh, and Venustas, fetch me my machine guns."

25 Minutes Later

Jack landed on the floor of the main dome. He looked around, confused at why he was there. His head turned when he heard Rector's voice, "Mr Harkness, how kind of you to join us."

Jack looked at Rector's smile, "But I'm afraid you can't stay with us for much longer."

Suddenly Rector grabbed two machine guns off his desk, pointed them at Jack and held down the Trigger. The bullets ripped into Jack's flesh and he fell to the ground dead.

Rector spoke to Venustas, "Put his body next to them," he pointed to Gwen and Owen, "we'll have a feast later."

She dragged his body across the floor leaving a trail of blood, as Rector sat back down in his chair and placed the machine guns on his desk. He seemed to be talking to himself, "I don't think we can wait another 20 minutes, no. The situation is too desperate. We'll have to descend now."

He held down a button on his desk and spoke into a microphone, his voice projecting throughout the entire ship, "Attention all members of the 5th Empire of the Swarm. We have decided to start the descent early. Please proceed to the nearest exit to descend in 1 minute."

Everyone in the room except Rector, Gwen, Owen walked out the door. Rector stood up and looked at the monitor on his desk. He played with the controls for a minute until he looked up. Rector let out a giggle and turned to Gwen, "There's nothing you can do now sweetie. It's begun, they're descending!"

Gwen knew it was all over. This was the way the Earth ended. Rhys was dead, along with billions of human beings and there was no hope. Then, taking Gwen by surprise, Jack took in a small intake of breath. He jumped up, revived, and bolted up the stairs towards Rector. Rector turned and saw Jack, but there was nothing he could do. Jack picked up the machine guns and pointed them at Rector.

"My turn." he said as he pulled the triggers.

Rector fell to the ground, dying. He looked up at Jack with utter confusion in his eyes. He tried to say something but only managed to say, "How....."

Jack looked at him with pity, "How am I still alive? I can't die. You kill me and I come back a minute later. How come I killed you? Because you've just killed the entire human race. How am I going to stop this?"

Jack's voice dimmed down to a whisper, "I don't know."

Rector smiled and his last dying act was to reach up and press a button on his desk. He fell to the ground as a computer voice announced that the ship was set to self destruct in 5 minutes.

***

Tosh had survived "it" again. Ianto, however, had not. He had smashed into a large building, which she had somehow avoided. She had no idea where she was. All she knew was that she was at the outskirts of a city. She had sat down next to Ianto's body and cried. No, she wasn't crying, she was weeping. The whole world had gone to hell, Jack, Gwen and Owen were all dead as well for all she knew and she was sitting against a building, with only dead corpses for comfit. It seemed like she was the last human being on Earth. She had no idea exactly how long she sat there crying, but it had got dark and light again. She had tried to go to sleep, but she just wept. She had tried to move closer into the city, but it felt like a sin to move away from Ianto's body. Then, all of a sudden, everything started to shake. She could hear a rumbling noise in the distance. She had no idea what it was and to be frank, she didn't care. It didn't fix the pain in her heart, or stop her weeping. It kept on going and the rumbling got louder and louder. After another 10 minutes, a huge bang came from the sky. She looked up and saw stingrays. Flying. Metal. Stingrays. She started to laugh. She was delusional. That was all. There were no stingrays, there was just her brain.

***

Jack was looking at the map of the ship on Rector's monitor, with Gwen and Owen standing over his shoulder. He has untied them a minute ago.

"What exactly are we looking for here?" said Gwen.

"I don't know. Anything, something."

Owen tried to speak in a kind way, "No offence or anything Jack, but what, in the entire universe, is gonna help us now? The ship is gonna self destruct and a bunch of stingrays are eating what's left of the Earth. What's gonna help us now?"

Jack spoke quietly, "I know someone who could."

Everyone was quiet; they knew who Jack was talking about.

Gwen broke the silence for the second time that day, "What's that room there," she pointed to a big room, "It's not a dome or rehabilitation place, but it's pretty big."

Jack brought up a description of the room. All it said was 'Ostendo Chamber – Salvaged.". Jack's face broke into a big smile.

Owen looked at Jack, "What's an 'Ostendo Chamber'? Have you heard of it?"

"Oh, I've heard of it all right. It's an unbelievably advanced piece of technology. It works on time travel radiation. When you travel in time, you pick up this radiation. It's not harmful, but it's just there. It stays in your body. This thing, it uses that radiation. It takes it apart and uses the structure of it. It allows you to reverse the effects of however long you choose. Nobody remembers except for the person who uses it. These chambers are very rare, extremely rare."

Owen pointed out the negative, "That's great, but none of us have travelled through time."

Jack smiled again, "I have."

With that he ran towards the door.

***

Tosh was convinced now that the flying metal stingrays were real. They were flying down and eating the corpses that lay on the ground. They were billions of them, all flying in different directions. Then, one of them had come for her. She bolted down the street and into the big building that she had been leaning against earlier, thankful that the door was open. She, Toshiko, the last human on Earth, was running from death.

***

Jack bolted down the corridors, his coat billowing uncontrollably behind him. He still had the cleaner's swipe card, held tight in his sweaty palm. He had an idea of where the chamber was, but he didn't have time to memorize the map. He had to get to the chamber in less than a minute before the self-destruct started. Jack kept going, but realized that it wasn't going to happen. He had to travel right to the other end of the ship. A big bang came from behind him that left his ears ringing. The self-destruct had started. Nevertheless, Jack continued to run. He stopped in front of a door to swipe the card. As the doors opened he looked behind him. An explosion had gone off at the beginning of the corridor and a fireball was travelling down towards Jack. He ran through the door and turned back, waiting for the door to close and shut off the fireball. It closed on the top of the fireball and the tiny part that made it through extinguished immediately. Jack started running again. He turned into another corridor and as he was running down it an explosion went off just behind him. After another minute of running he came to a dead end with a different type of door. He hoped that this door led to the chamber. He inserted his card and went through the door.

The room was a nightmare. Wires ran all along the floor and walls with switches and other electronic devices he didn't recognise lying around. In the middle of the room there was a circular console with only a dial and what looked like a jar with a hole in the top. He knew what to do, he had to set the dial and place his hand in the jar. Everything would be reversed, it would all be over. He ran up to the console and started to set the dial. But suddenly, a huge explosion came right from above Jack. It threw him into the air and he hit the wall with huge force. His fell onto the ground facing the console, unable to move. His leg and his head were bleeding profoundly and he was feeling dizzy. Explosions rang in his ears from all directions and all the lights went out. Jack lay there, in the dark, dying. Gwen and Owen were probably dead and soon he would be too. He'd be resurrected in five minutes, but by then the chamber would've been blown up and Jack would be a body floating space. He tried to get up but he smashed into the ground again as soon as he lifted himself a centimetre up. Jack's thoughts turned to the Doctor. Why hadn't he come? He would've set everything right ages ago. Maybe he didn't know that this was the way the world ended. Maybe something was stopping him from coming here. Maybe he just forgot. That man always has so much to remember, thought Jack, so maybe he forgot about us.

Then, a gust of wind blew over Jack. A second gust came, but it wasn't the wind that interested Jack. It was a very soft sound accompanying the wind, a grinding noise, the kind of grinding noise that came from ancient engines. Jack had heard that noise before, the sound of ancient grinding engines, the sound of time and space. The sound got louder and louder and louder and the wind got bigger and bigger and bigger. It was coming from behind Jack, so he couldn't see it. With all his might, Jack managed to turn himself around. There, a few metres behind him, was the TARDIS. Bright light was coming from the windows, lighting up the room. Jack smiled; The Doctor was here at last. The wind and noise stopped and the doors opened. A much brighter light shone from inside and Jack had to shield his eyes. The Doctor walked to the edge of the TARDIS doors. He stood there, in his pinstripe suit and long brown coat, and looked at Jack.

"You're late." Jack said with a little laugh.

The Doctor gave a little smile, but his expression said one thing; I'm sorry. The Doctor hadn't come earlier and he was sorry about it. Jack didn't mind, because he knew that now it would be all right. The Doctor had come, they were saved. The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and past Jack to the Chamber Console. Jack rolled over again and saw him put his hand into the Jar. Everything started to go white and Jack closed his eyes.


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

Gwen woke with a start in her bed. Her mind was rushed with a million thoughts: Stingrays, Earth, Jack, Ostendo Chamber, Giant Sharks, Rector, Self-Destruct and Rhys. She jumped out of bed in a panic and realized that Rhys lay on the other side of the bed. She rushed over to the window and opened the curtains; there were no stingrays and no dead bodies. Everything was ok. Jack must have set everything right by using the Ostendo Chamber. But then how come she remembered? Jack said that whoever used the Ostendo Chamber would remember, but everyone else would forget. She looked at the date; it was a day before "it" had started. She sighed of relief. Everything was all right.

Rhys' voice came from the bed, "Bloody hell, it's six o'clock in the morning Gwen? Would you mind not opening the blinds 'till at least 7? "

Gwen turned around and smiled, "Sorry, just taking a look outside. I got to go to work, but I'll be back later, okay?"

"You're eager for work aren't you? I hope you're not turning into one of those work addicts!"

She gave him a kiss on the forehead, said goodbye and went out to find Jack.

***

Captain Jack Harkness sat at his desk, trying to figure out why he remembered everything. Technically he shouldn't remember anything that happened to the Earth, because he wasn't the one used the Ostendo Chamber. He jumped when Gwen came running into his office.

"I remember everything Jack. All of it. How come?"

"I've been trying to figure that out myself."

"Well, of course you'd remember. You used the Chamber thing."

"No I didn't. I was in the chamber, but the self-destruct had started. Things were blowing up everywhere. Then something blew up and it knocked me down to the ground. I couldn't get up and do it, my body was too weak."

"Then who did it?"

"He did."

"You mean, the..."

"Yeah, him."

"So, why do we remember it all?"

"Hard to say. He'd be able to us. I suspect it's something like 'We were too linked to the events to forget'. Owen will remember, I think, but not Tosh and Ianto."

"But won't everything just happen again. The stingrays will just spin the Earth like last time, won't they?"

"No, The Doctor will stop them. He knows about them now, so he'll stop them."

They stood there, silent, thinking about how close they had come to failure.


End file.
